In my work email...

...was this article:

Library trustees vote to keep badges
By Lindsay Kishter Tribune staff reporter

Library trustees in south suburban Crestwood said they never expected that buying shiny, five-pointed, gold star badges with protective leather cases for themselves would cause such a hullabaloo.

Still, they stuck to their guns -- figurative, in this case -- when scornful residents criticized the $600 purchase.

In fact, trustees reaffirmed keeping the badges in a vote this week.

Library Board President Clyde Petersen, a former police officer in Crestwood, said plenty of other elected officials have similar credentials, and there are many "trustee" stars available at the badge shop.

But a quick survey of other library boards in the area suggests that Crestwood may be an innovator.

"The badges were completely outside of anyone's experience," said Patty Dwyer Wanninger, director of the Blue Island Public Library.

"I never heard of it," said Ruthann Swanson, director of the Alsip-Merrionette Public Library.

"My trustees? They have business cards that we produce for them," said Rich Wolff, director of the Tinley Park Public Library.

When the badges were issued last year, Crestwood Police Chief Timothy Sulikowski said he was flooded with calls from residents concerned they might be misused.

In the spring, a friend of one of the trustees, who borrowed the badge, was arrested for allegedly impersonating a public official after he flashed the badge to try to get a parking spot in Merrionette Park.

"I don't think anybody except a fireman or a policeman needs a badge," said Trustee Diana Koepp, who opposes them. "It has no purpose. It's just a waste of taxpayer dollars, if you ask me."

Still, the board voted 6-0 to keep the badges but with a new set of rules. The stipulations include not lending them, keeping them in a safe place and filing a police report if a badge is stolen. They also agreed that if members don't want a badge, it will be kept under lock and key by the president and secretary in a drawer at the library.

Koepp abstained from voting. Trustee Loch Miwa said he doesn't like the badges but voted for the new rules as a compromise.

A half-dozen residents criticized the badges at this week's meeting and others had balked at earlier meetings, said Suzanne Bleskin, director of the Crestwood Public Library.

"Any comment we get here in the library -- and we get a lot of them -- is no one likes it," Bleskin said. "I personally have never seen the badges."

Neither has the police chief, who, along with Mayor Chester Stranczek, would like to see the badges go.

It's not clear if residents have gotten a look. But Petersen doubted he'd show anybody now, even if asked.

"I'm trying to put this whole thing to bed," he said. "To keep stirring it up, that would just bring it back to light again."

In March a friend of a board member took a badge out of the trustee's car as the two were outside a Merrionette Park, Petersen said.

They were told they couldn't park at the club, but then the badge appeared in the friend's hand. The man was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a public official.

Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office, said the charges were dropped with the friend agreeing to perform 50 hours of community service.

Petersen, like Stranczek, thinks the trustees and the town should get on with more pressing library issues.

"I agree with him, rather than having all this nonsense," Petersen said.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Disclaimer: I don't know ANY of these people.

But somehow they seem sorta familiar...'scuse me, I seem to be having Rowling flashbacks....